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LIFE  AT 
BOWDOIN 


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LIFE  AT  BOWDOIN 


A  fen  prturr  of  %  Glnllrn?  ICtft 
nf  Unmunut  Unb^rgrabuatfB 


Written  by  Bowdoin  Men,  Edited  by 
the  Student  Council,  Published  and 
Distributed  by  Bowdoin  College    .... 


BOWDOIN    COLLEGE    BULLETIN 
NUMBER  112  JUNE,  1921 


Brunswick,  Maine 

Entered   as   second-class   matter,   June    28,    1907,   at    Brunswick,    Maine, 
under  Act  of  Congress  of  July  16,   1894 


PUBLISHED     MONTHLY     BY    THE    COLLEGE 


Life  at  Bowdoin 


«£3&^8  F  O  R  E  W  O  R  E>  S^^3 

A  generation  ago  President  William  DeWitt  Hyde,  than  whom 
there  has  been  no  greater  teacher  or  friend  of  Bowdoin  men,  voiced 
the  offer  of  the  college  to  prospective  students  in  the  following  words : 

"To  be  at  home  in  all  lands  and  all  ages :  to  count  Nature  a 
familiar  acquaintance,  and  Art  an  intimate  friend  :  to  gain  a  standard 
for  the  appreciation  of  other  men's  work  and  the  criticism  of  your 
own :  to  carry  the  keys  of  the  world's  library  in  your  pocket,  and 
feel  its  resources  behind  you  in  whatever  task  you  undertake :  to 
make  hosts  of  friends  among  the  men  of  your  own  age  who  are  to  be 
the  leaders  in  all  walks  of  life :  to  lose  yourself  in  generous  en- 
thusiasms and  co-operate  with  others  for  common  ends :  to  learn 
manners  from  students  who  are  gentlemen,  and  form  character  un- 
der professors  who  are  Christians  : — this  is  the  offer  of  the  college 
for  four  of  the  best  years  of  your  life." 

Proudly  as  ever  Bowdoin  undergraduates  transmit  this  message 
to  their  younger  brothers  in  the  schools,  in  order  that  the  inspiration 
which  it  carries  may  remain  a  part  of  President  Hyde's  undying  work. 
But  the  school  boy  asks  for  something  besides  inspiration.  He  is 
eager  to  know  how  the  college  men,  his  future  college  mates,  live 
and  work  and  play.  To  meet  this  demand  the  members  of  the  Bow- 
doin Student  Council  present  this  little  collection  of  the  letters  of 
Bowdoin  men.  The  letters  have  not  been  selected  or  edited  with  any 
thought  of  studied  presentation,  much  less  of  literary  style.  For  it 
has  seemed  to  us  that  the  boys  for  whom  they  are  intended  will  gain 
a  truer  idea  of  things  as  they  are, — will  catch  more  of  the  atmosphere 
of  the  campus, — from  these  rough  and  ready  epistles  than  from  any 
attempts  which  we  might  make  to  show  the  priceless  gifts  of  style 
obtainable  in  English  i.  If  we  must  shroud  the  identity  of  the  writers 
in  mystery  to  spare  the  feelings  of  our  teachers  in  the  gentle  art  of 
writing  English  prose,  we  greet  our  younger  brothers  unashamed. 
They  too  shall  learn  to  use  the  pen  of  Bacon, — if  they  will.  They 
too,  mayhap,  will  chuck  old  Bacon  in  the  discard  when  they  write 
to  friends  back  home. 


Trustees  and  Guests  at  Commencement 


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Flag  on  Chapel  Tower 


Life  at  Bowdoin 


Brunswick,  Maine,  March  n,  1921. 
Dear  Jim, 

I  will  be  glad  to  see  about  your  room  for  you.  There  is  no 
hurry  for  it's  not  time  for  allotments  yet  and  the  rooms  are  about 
the  same  anyhow,  unless  you  believe  in  ghosts.  If  you  do,  you  might 
want  to  sleep  in  Longfellow's  room  on  the  chance  of  his  coming 
round  some  night.  He  does  sort  of  haunt  the  place  in  a  way.  There 
always  seems  to  be  someone  around  who  can  turn  out  good  verse. 
Did  you  see  the  volume  of  Forbes  Rickard's  poems,  published  after 
he  was  killed  in  France,  or  the  sonnet  that  Hal  White  wrote  on  his 
death?  If  you  didn't/ I'll  send  them  to  you  sometime.  Rickard  really 
represented  Bowdoin  traditions  in  two  ways,  with  Longfellow  and 
Hawthorne  on  one  side  and  Chamberlain  and  Howard  and  all  the 
other  great  Bowdoin  soldiers  of  the  Civil  War  on  the  other.  They 
were  a  great  crowd,  those  Bowdoin  Civil  War  men.  There  must 
have  been  about  a  dozen  generals  among  them.  And  I  guess  we 
would  have  had  a  few  more  generals  if  Kaiser  Bill  had  stayed  in  the 
business  a  little  longer,  with  Sherman  Shumway  going  from  doughboy 
to  lieutenant-colonel  in  a  year. 

I  wonder  sometimes  why  they  don't  keep  more  track  of  the  rooms 
that  famous  men  have  used  in  the  ends.  Peary  must  have  slept  some- 
where when  he  climbed  the  chapel  tower  to  hang  a  flag  there  and  to 
get  in  practice  for  hanging  a  flag  on  the  North  Pole.  I  wonder 
whether  Don  MacMillan  (he's  on  the  Faculty  here,  but  no  one  calls 
him  professor  yet),  slept  in  Peary's  room.  I  suppose  you  have  read 
that  he  is  to  start  for  the  Arctic  as  soon  as  the  Bowdoin  is  ready. 
You  see  I  have  a  personal  reason  for  wanting  to  know  about  rooms 
for  I  have  a  hunch  that  I  am  going  to  be  a  little  shining  light  at  Har- 
vard Law  before  I  start  for  New  York  and  Washington.  So  I  want 
to  hunt  up  the  rooms  of  Tom  Reed  and  Franklin  Pierce  and  Chief 
Justice  Fuller  and  get  in  one  night  apiece  anyhow.  If  you  still  want 
to  be  a  great  financier,  as  you  did  last  summer,  you  might  start  in 
Harvey  Gibson's  room.  I'll  see  whether  the  college  treasurer  has  a 
special  price  on  it.  On  the  other  hand,  you  may  want  to  take  any  old 
room  just  to  have  the  fun  of  seeing  what  it  is  that  will  land  you 
in  Who's  Who.  You  can't  miss  picking  something  good,  so  you  had 
better  think  of  getting  a  good  room-mate  and  leave  the  room  to  Fate 
and  Furbish. 

Yours  sincerely, 

L.  M.  G. 


Life  at  Bowdoin 


II. 

15  South  Appleton,  Bowdoin  College,  Feb.  12,  1921. 
Dear  Nelson, 

So  you  want  to  know  about  activities  at  Bowdoin.  What  do  you 
mean  activities?  I  suppose  the  chief  one  here  is  trying  to  make  the 
Faculty  think  that  you're  doing  about  twice  as  much  work  as  your 
family  expects  you  to  do  and  four  times  as  much  as  you  ever  intend 
to  do.  But  of  course,  you  know  all  about  that  already.  Why  didn't 
you  tell  me  your  specialty?  Or  arc  you  going  to  be  the  original  little 
college  wonder  and  get  two  pages  of  honors  in  the  Bugle?  Anyhow 
here  goes. 

Besides  getting  your  three  letters  in  football,  track,  and  base- 
ball, you  can  pick  up  a  couple  of  fancy  ones  all  fixed  up  with  foils 
and  hockey  sticks.  Hockey  is  getting  to  be  quite  an  intercollegiate 
sport  here  and  we  have  a  decent  rink  at  last.  The  fencing  team 
matches  up  with  Harvard,  Dartmouth,  M.  I.  T.,  and  other  minor 
New  England  colleges,  but  we  hope  to  get  real  competition  some  day. 
You  might  want  a  tennis  letter  too,  but  if  so  you'll  have  to  step 
lively,  for  we  expect  to  have  them  all  guessing  at  Longwood  for  a 
year  or  two.  If  this  won't  give  you  enough  athletics,  you  can  fill  in 
your  time  with  boxing  and  wrestling,  and  play  handball  or  basketball 
between  bouts  just  to  get  back  your  wind. 

I  seem  to  remember  that  you're  a  sort  of  boy  Demosthenes, 
though  I  should  think  that  the  pebbles  down  your  way  might  make 
your  statements  seem  a  little  fishy.  Still,  the  judges  of  the  debates 
around  here  don't  always  notice  fishy  statements,  as  the  undefeated 
team  of  Ripon  College  lately  found  to  its  cost,  so  you  may  get  by 
after  all.  Seriously,  we  make  a  good  deal  of  debating  here  for  the 
use  that  it  may  be  to  a  man  in  after  life. 

When  it  comes  to  writing,  you  will  have  all  sorts  of  choice.  If 
a  fellow  wants  to  learn  to  be  a  cub  reporter  or  the  editor  of  one  of 
"our  leading  metropolitan  dailies"  all  he  has  to  do  is  to  get  on  the 
Orient  board.  If  he  wants  to  be  a  Shakespeare  or  an  Amy  Lowell 
or  a  Ring  Lardner,  he  practices  in  the  Quill.  But  the  real  geniuses, 
the  Mark  Twains,  the  Bill  Nyes  and  the  Briggses,  find  their  outlet 
in  the  Bearskin.    You  could  tell  that  by  the  name. 

Perhaps  you  like  the  footlights.  If  so  there's  chance  enough 
there,  too.  You  can  play  anything  from  an  English  duke  to  a  Broad- 
way chicken  in  the  Masque  and  Gown  shows  and  do  quite  a  little 
traveling  in  the  New  England  states.  The  glee  and  mandolin  clubs 
do  even  better  than  that  on  trips,  for  they  get  down  to  New  York. 
They  always  end  their  shows  too  with  dances.     I  suppose  that's  why 


Outing  Club  on  River 


Biology  Club  Cabin 


Life  at  Bowdoin 


they  have  such  classy  girls  up  for  house  parties.  Even  a  fellow  who 
isn't  either  an  actor  or  a  musician  can  get  a  chance  to  play  with  the 
grease  paints  in  the  vaudeville  stunts  put  on  at  some  of  the  rallies. 

I  was  almost  forgetting  the  outdoor  activities.  A  man  can  learn 
to  serve  his  country  by  joining  the  rifle  club,  or  prepare  for  a  happy 
old  age  by  playing  golf  free  of  charge  on  the  links  of  the  Brunswick 
Golf  Club.  A  young,  but  promising,  Outing  Club  is  organizing  an 
all  the  year  round  programme  of  camping,  fishing  (they've  got  the 
fish  stories  already)  tramping,  and  canoeing,  besides  all  the  winter 
sports.  There  aren't  many  colleges  that  have  anything  like  our  op- 
portunities to  get  on  the  water  or  into  the  woods,  and  we  are  just 
waking  up  to  the  fact.  Speaking  of  the  Outing  Club  reminds  me 
of  the  Biology  Club,  which  is  quite  an  outing  club  in  itself.  Like 
all  the  other  departmental  clubs  (clubs  formed  for  the  outside  study 
of  special  subjects  such  as  history,  government,  classics,  English 
literature,  and  so  forth),  the  Biology  Club  holds  meetings  where  you 
get  a  mixture  of  instruction  and  sociability.  But  the  special  feature 
in  the  case  of  this  club  consists  of  the  practice  of  taking  field  trips 
which  give  a  living  interest  to  the  subject  and  promote  good  fellow- 
ship among  the  men  who  are  especially  interested  in  it.  The  club 
has  just  built  a  cabin  in  the  woods  with  bunks  and  other  accommoda- 
tions for  twelve  men,  and  talks  of  building  others.  Of  course  all  the 
departmental  clubs  are  more  or  less  useful  and  pleasant  and  I  advise 
you  to  join  at  least  one  if  you  can. 

I  wonder  how  many  activities  I  have  forgotten.  Quite  a  few  I 
guess,  like  the  college  band  and  the  chapel  choir  and  attending  public 
lectures  for  credit  when  the  Faculty  is  afraid  there  won't  be  enough 
of  an  audience  to  please  the  lecturer.  But  perhaps  you'll  think  you 
can  fill  up  your  time  and  develop  a  few  of  your  talents  from  the 
ones  I  have  told  you  about.  That  is  the  big  thing  about  a  small  col- 
lege, the  all-round  development.  In  a  big  place  a  fellow  has  to  be  a 
star  to  show  up  in  anything,  but  the  small  college  needs  the  best 
that  each  of  her  men  can  do  in  every  line  and  helps  him  bring  it  out. 

And  at  Bowdoin,  the  man  is  usually  ready  to  do  all  he  can  be- 
cause of  one  activity  that  I  haven't  mentioned  yet.  It  is  hard  to 
describe  because  it  has  no  special  organization,  no  badge,  no  rules, 
no  governing  body.  In  fact  it  is  almost  invisible.  And  yet  it  is  bigger 
than  all  organizations,  for  it  includes  every  man  here,  and  is  the 
most  firmly  established  and  influential  thing  about  the  whole  place. 
This  vital  and  actively  working  activity  is  the  spirit  that  permeates 
and  envelops  the  whole  college,  that  grips  and  holds  and  leads  every 
group  in  the  work  that  it  has  to  do.  It  is  democratic,  enthusiastic, 
courageous,  contagious,  and  true.  It  is  a  great  spirit  of  comradeship 
in  working  for  an  institution  which  we  love  and  which  we  are  in- 


10 


Life  at  Bowdoin 


Life  at  Bowdoin 


11 


tensely  proud  to  call  our  own — our  Bowdoin  College.    Get  that  when 

you  come  and  you'll  find  that  it  isn't  hard  to  make  good  in  activities. 

Please  remember  me  to  your  brother  and  remember  to  write. 

Yours, 

A.  H. 


cJWasque  and  Gown 


Class  Day  Exercises 


III. 

5  Hyde  Hall,  Bowdoin  College. 


Dear  Bob, 


Thanks  for  your  letter  congratulating  me  on  my  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
election.  I'll  own  that  I  was  mighty  pleased  to  get  it.  It  will  tickle 
Dad.  The  attitude  of  the  fellows  at  the  house  is  funny.  They  all 
jolly  me,  but  you  can  see  that  they  are  pleased  to  see  another'  key 
come  into  the  house  at  that.  I  don't  suppose  any  house  here  would 
admit  that  it  was  after  high  marks,  but  they  are  all  more  or  less 
anxious  to  get  them  because  they  know  that  it  helps  in  getting 
good  freshmen  and  because  there  is  an  underlying  feeling  that  it  is 
a  disgrace  to  be  low  down.  When  you  come  here,  don't  let  anyone 
persuade  you  that  you  won't  be  more  respected  if  you  keep  up  good 
standing  in  your  courses.  For  one  thing,  the  Faculty  will  keep  you 
out  of  all  activities  if  your  standing  drops  too  low  and  most  fellows 
realize  that  a  man  who  is  needed  on  an  athletic  team  is  hurting 
the  college  just  as  much  by  getting  himself  ineligible  as  he  is  by 
breaking  training  or  not  coming  out  for  practice.  But  there  is  more 
than  that  to  it,  though  I  don't  know  whether  I  can  express  what  it 
is.  A  fellow  who  loafs  doesn't  usually  get  much  in  offices  and  I 
suppose  that  it  is  because  they  feel  that  he  can't  be  much  good 
if  he  hasn't  enough  pep  to  do  the  work  that  he  came  here  to  do. 
We  know  that  the  standards  are  high,  that  they  always  have  been 
high,  and  that  Bowdoin  is  the  one  college  in  the  state  which  gets  first- 
class  rating  from  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education  on  the  basis  of  work 
done  by  its  graduates  in  professional  and  graduate  schools.  So  it 
seems  a  sort  of  challenge  to  keep  up  with  the  college  and  to  keep 
up  with  the  old  graduates  who  met  these  standards  and  who  will 
not  have  them  cut  down.  It  is  worth  some  extra  work  to  know  that 
you  will  be  proud  to  name  your  college  in  any  company,  and  it  may 
be  useful  in  landing  a  job,  too. 


■£...    m  ^f'liJti 


You  want  to  know  how  I  got  my  key.  Just  by  sticking  at  it, 
I  suppose,  and  using  a  little  system,  so  that  athletics  and  other 
activities  didn't  get  more  than  their  share  of  time.  You  will  be 
surprised  to  see  how  many  athletes  are  high  men  in  their  courses. 
It  is  just  a  question  of  not  wasting  time.  One  thing  I  didn't  do 
and  that  was  to  pick  my  courses  with  the  idea  of  getting  high  ranks. 
Some  men  do  it,  but  I  think  it  is  poor  policy  to  concentrate  on  just 
those  things  that  you  like  best  or  find  easiest.  Of  course,  if  a  man 
knows  what  he  is  going  in  for  after  graduation,  it  may  be  all  right 
to  specialize.  If  you  are  going  into  manufacturing,  you  may  find 
it  wise  to  take  a  good  deal  of  physics  and  chemistry  or  mechanical 
drawing,  and  you  can  get  good  training  in  all  of  them  here.  If 
you  are  out  for  business,  you  will  want  some  of  these,  with  courses 
in  modern  languages  and  in  money  and  banking  or  commercial  law. 
If  you  want  to  be  a  lawyer  or  a  preacher  or  an  editor  or  anyone  who 
has  to  write  or  talk,  you  will  take  a  lot  of  history  and  government 
and  philosophy  and  English.  Then,  of  course,  there  are  a  lot  of 
things  that  you  will  have  to  take.  You  can  find  out  about  these  in 
the  catalogue.  But  there  is  still  room  for  spreading  and  I  believe  in 
it.  The  college  tradition  is  that  a  gentleman  ought  to  have  an  all 
round  education,  and  you  can  surely  get  it  here.  Languages  range 
all  the  way  from  French  to  Russian,  history  from  the  Roman  Empire 
to  the  Bolsheviks,  and  philosophy  and  psychology  as  far  as  you  can 
follow.  There  are  courses  in  art,  with  an  art  collection  unsurpassed 
by  that  of  any  college  in  the  country  to  study  in,  courses  in  music  with 
Ai  equipment,  and  courses  in  things  as  practical  as  wireless  teleg- 
raphy. 

But  after  all  it  isn't  so  much  the  subject  as  the  way  it  is  taught 
and  that  is  where  Bowdoin,  I  think,  scores.  You  can  get  mere  facts 
in  any  high  school  or  second  rate  college,  or  in  a  public  library  for 
that  matter.  But  you  won't  get  what  you  need  far  more,  practice 
in  picking  out  the  facts  that  matter,  joining  them  up,  working  out 
conclusions    and    arguing   on    the    conclusions    that    you    get.     And 


14 


Life  at  Bowdoin 


practice  of  that  sort  is  one  of  the  Bowdoin  specialties.  The  classes 
are  broken  up  into  little  groups  called  conferences  which  meet  with 
the  instructor  once  a  week  to  argue  over  the  lectures  and  what  we 
have  read.  One  of  our  younger  graduates  who  is  in  a  big  business 
house  in  New  York  told  me  that  that  was  the  best  thing  he  had  had 
here.  His  chief  of  department  had  meetings  of  the  juniors  where 
he  quizzed  them  to  see  whether  they  were  getting  the  real  stuff. 
Most  of  them  went  all  up  in  the  air,  but  he  felt  that  he  was  back 
home  at  Bowdoin,  and  I  guess  he  put  it  over  them,  though  he  didn't 
say  so. 

Well,  Bob,  it's  getting  late.  Chapel  at  8.20  and  then  a  lecture 
and  two  conferences  unless  one  of  the  professors  gives  an  "adjourn" 
by  not  turning  up  for  five  minutes  after  the  chapel  bell  rings.  They 
don't  even  do  that  very  often  nowadays.  That's  what  comes  of  raising 
professors'  salaries.  Now  here's  a  little  dope  for  you.  Get  your 
entrance  requirements  fixed  up  in  good  time  so  you  can  start  even 
with  the  game,  keep  your  eye  on  the  ball  when  you  get  here  and 
you'll  make  good. 

Thank  your  mother  for  her  message. 

Yours, 

P.  D.  C. 


Br~  t    *    jg 

wY  ■Ifc  * 

^^P^kJ^B    m*  ^ 

mam  91  ^m^M 

IkhUT'  Jr 

MM  ^mSS^r  ' 

House  Party  Group 


Life  at  Bowdoin  15 


IV. 

Brunswick,  Maine,  March  28,  1921. 
Dear  Bill, 

The  record  for  the  hundred  yard  dash,  you  asked  about,  is  9  4-5. 
It  was  made  by  a  Bowdoin  man,  Cloudman  'oi,  back  in  1900.  He  was 
a  huge  fellow,  six  feet  tall  and  weighed  over  200.  He  played  foot- 
ball, too.  The  story  goes  that  he  could  do  a  hundred  yards  in  10 
seconds  flat  across  a  ploughed  field  with  rubber  boots  on. 

We  still  specialize  in  track  here.  Have. a  wonderful  coach,  Jack 
Magee.  You've  probably  heard  of  him.  He  went  over  to  Antwerp 
with  the  Olympic  Team  last  summer  as  a  trainer;  took  a  Bowdoin 
man  along  with  him  as  one  of  America's  milers.  You  may  think, 
Bill,  that  we  have  a  sort  of  a  knack  for  getting  star  trackmen  to  come 
to  Bowdoin.  If  it  is  so,  we  don't  need  to.  We  can  make  them  here. 
Magee  will  take  a  fellow  who  never  had  on  a  track  shoe  before  he 
came  to  college  and  inside  of  a  couple  of  years  he  will  be  a  champion. 
Jack  is  strong  on  the  form.  "Stride  and  bound !"  he  says.  It  works, 
too.  Athletic  experts  say  they  can  recognize  Bowdoin  runners  at 
these  big  intercollegiate  meets  on  account  of  their  good  running  form. 
You  see  we  do  a  "scholarly  piece  of  work"  on  the  athletic  field  as 
well  as  in  the  class  room. 

Speaking  of  studies,  Bill,  I  might  say  that  they  have  to  come  first 
at  Bowdoin.  Although  we  put  lots  of  pep  into  our  sports,  nobody 
can  play  on  a  varsity  team  unless  he  is  up  in  all  his  studies.  Last 
fall  a  fellow  got  four  "A's"  and  a  "B."  He  made  his  "B"  for  win- 
ning the  cross  country  race. 

Roomy  just  blew  in  and  is  rushing  about  packing  his  grip  for 
a  baseball  trip.  The  team  is  off  to  New  York  and  beyond.  They're 
going  to  play  Columbia,  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Princeton. 
We  have  a  good  team  this  year,  so  we  are  tackling  the  big  ones. 
They've  been  practicing  about  a  month  now.  Starting  baseball  in 
February  sounds  rather  early  for  a  Maine  spring,  doesn't  it?  But 
we  have  winter  practice  indoors.  The  Hyde  Athletic  building,  part 
of  the  college  gym,  is  our  cage.  It  has  a  clear  floor  space  large 
enough  for  a  full-sized  infield  with  twenty  feet  beyond  the  bases. 
The  floor  is  clay  and  when  rolled  hard  makes  the  fastest  sort  of  a 
diamond.  So  we  start  baseball  here  at  the  same  time  the  big  league 
teams  go  South  for  their  spring  practice  and  no  wonder  we  have 
enough  time  for  a  schedule  of  24  games. 

While  I'm  in  the  athletic  mood,  I  might  tell  you  about  our  other 
major  sport,  football.  Sure,  we've  beaten  Harvard.  The  last  time 
we  won,  our  quarterback,  instead  of  falling  on  a  fumbled  ball  thought 
he  could  do  something  better,  so  he  picked  it  up  and  ran  80  yards 


Life  at  Bowdoin 


17 


for  a  touchdown.  He  is  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary  now.  I  mentioned 
that,  so  you  could  see  that  everybody  goes  out  for  athletics.  If  you're 
not  on  the  gridiron  fighting  with  the  team,  you  are  in  the  grand- 
stand yelling  for  them  to  fight.  And  believe  me,  Bill,  Bowdoin  teams 
play  the  game  fair,  but  they  play  it  hard,  too. 

Last  fall,  the  game  with  the  University  of  Maine  was  to  decide 
the  State  championship.  It  was  some  old  battle,  Bill.  Maine  was 
much  heavier  than  we  were  and  was  picked  to  win,  so  our  fight  was 
an  uphill  one.  There  was  no  score  in  the  first  three  quarters,  but 
early  in  the  fourth  a  Maine  halfback  got  a  lucky  run  around  end 
for  a  touchdown.  That  was  a  challenge  to  the  traditional  Bowdoin 
fight  and  the  team  met  it  as  a  Bowdoin  team  should.  With  six 
minutes  to  play  our  team  took  the  ball  by  straight  line  bucking  for 
nearly  seventy  yards  and  tied  the  score  just  before  the  final  whistle. 

These  are  our  major  sports,  Bill,  but  you'll  find  hockey,  basket- 
ball, tennis,  golf,  fencing,  rifle  teams  here.  Every  man  to  his  liking 
is  our  motto  and  if  you  are  not  a  star  in  one  of  these  sports  already 
and  if  we  can't  make  you  one,  still  you  can  take  Freshman  Required 
Athletics  and  get  an  "A"  if  you  don't  get  a  "B." 

Better  come  and  try.    Best  of  luck  to  you ! 

Sincerely, 

M.  H.  A. 


Hurdle  Race 


Life  at  Bowdoin  19 


V. 

Bowdoin  College,  April  14,  1921. 
Dear  Brown, 

I  was  mighty  g'lad  to  get  your  letter  this  morning  and  hear 
that  you  are  coming  to  Bowdoin  next  year.  You'll  never  in  all  your 
life  make  a  better  move.  It's  too  bad  that  you  couldn't  come  down 
over  the  week-end  of  February  18  and  19.  The  College  entertained 
pretty  nearly  two  hundred  high  school  students  and  you  can  be  sure 
that  we  gave  them  the  best  time  we  could.  The  various  fraternities 
each  staged  a  vaudeville  act  on  Friday  evening,  over  in  Memorial 
Hall.  Fun,  say  it  was  the  best  evening's  entertainment  I've  had  since 
coming  here,  and  we  have  lots  of  good  rallies  and  get-to-gethers, 
too. 

On  March  5th  came  the  Indoor  Track  Meet  with  various  New 
England  schools  competing.  Huntington  took  first  place  by  one  point 
over  Exeter.  At  the  rally  that  evening  came  some  more  vaudeville 
stunts,  varied  by  speeches  and  "eats."     'Twas  some  party. 

You  ask  me  to  tell  you  about  Bowdoin  fraternities  and  social 
life.  It's  a  long  story,  but  here  goes.  In  the  first  place  there  are 
ten  national  fraternities,  the  oldest  established  here  eighty  years  ago 
and  seven  of  them  running  here  more  than  fifty  years.  There  is 
also  one  local.  On  the  average,  there  are  about  thirty-five  men  in 
each  fraternity  so  that  approximately  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  men  in 
college  have  joined  fraternities.  The  various  houses  maintain  dining- 
rooms  and  about  half  of  the  men,  usually  upper-classmen,  room  in 
the  houses.  Fraternities  not  only  provide  living  accommodations, 
but  also  give  a  man  the  chance  to  form  closer  friendships  with  a  lot 
of  other  fellows  than  he  could  otherwise  do.  It  means  a  lot  to  a 
freshman,  too,  to  get  supervision  and  advice  from  upper  classmen 
who  are  interested  in  developing  and  making  the  best  of  him  for  the 
fraternity's  sake,  as  well  as  for  his  own.  During  his  four  years  a 
man  will  have  sixty  to  eighty  fraternity  brothers.  Needless  to  say, 
one  of  the  chief  things  you  will  get  out  of  college  is  an  understanding 
of  men. 

The  fraternities  form  the  center  of  the  everyday  social  life  of 
the  college.  You  can  picture  for  yourself  the  various  games  and 
entertainments  which  a  group  of  thirty  or  forty  men  would  hit  upon 
when  out  for  fun.  I  might  say  that  there's  nothing  more  pleasant 
than  gathering  around  a  good  hearth-fire  for  singing  and  stories 
after  supper.  With  a  pianist  and  a  few  banjo  and  mandolin  strum- 
mers,  nothing  is  lacking  to  a  good  time. 

As  for  social  life  outside  the  fraternity,  it  would  take  a  book 
to  describe  it  all.  First,  there  are  the  four  formal  college  dances, — 
the  Christmas  Dance,  the  Sophomore  Flop  in  the  early  spring,  and 
the    Ivy    (Junior)    and    Commencement (    Senior)    Dances    in   June. 


V) 

a 
I 

4) 

ft 


Life  at  Bowdoin  21 


Besides  these,  there  are  occasional  informal  college  dances.  All  the 
big  dances  are  held  in  the  Gymnasium.  If  you've  ever  been  in  the 
Gym  and  can  imagine  it  properly  decorated,  vibrating  with  the  music 
of  some  clever  dance  orchestra,  and  filled  with  the  prettiest  girls  in 
Mew  England,  then  you  have  a  faint  idea  of  what  a  college  dance  is. 
Of  course,  at  the  time  of  these  dances  the  various  fraternities  have 
house-parties,  so  that  the  last  three  days  of  the  week  are  filled  with 
dancing,  sleigh-rides,  motor-boating  and  even  less  formal  kinds  of 
entertainment. 

Turning  to  the  everyday  forms  of  social  activity,  there's  always 
something  to  do  when  time  hangs  heavy  on  your  hands.  You  may 
go  to  the  movies.  The  town  boasts#  two  theatres,  so  you  can  see  a 
different  show  every  night, — if  you  have  dropped  all  your  courses 
or  wish  to  flunk  them.  It's  a  common  form  of  relaxation  and  quite 
harmless,  unless  one  of  the  professors  for  whom  you  are  supposed  to 
be  studying  industriously  comes  in  and  sits  down  beside  you.  The 
more  romantic  and  light-footed  among  us  sometimes  take  in  the 
week-end  dances  held  in  the  Town  Hall  or  in  neighboring  towns. 

Another  form  of  entertainment,  to  ascend  from  the  ridiculous 
to  the  sublime,  is  that  of  calling  on  the  professors.  Indeed,  one  mem- 
ber of  the  Faculty,  the  Dean,  insists  on  having  the  students  call  on 
him,  even  during  office  hours.  But  the  usual  method  consists  in 
shining  the  shoes,  putting  on  a  sombre  tie,  pulling  a  doorbell  and 
walking  on  tiptoes  into  the  host's  studious-looking  study.  Seriously, 
one  of  the  many  pleasant  features  of  Bowdoin  College  life  is  the 
close  acquaintance  which  exists  between  the  faculty  members  and  the 
students.  It  is  a  rare  opportunity  to  be  able  to  spend  an  evening 
with  a  man  like  President  Sills.  And  if,  by  any  chance,  the  professor 
is  not  a  world  authority  on  his  subject,  we  can  get  the  broad  view- 
point from  the  well-known  lecturers  who  come  here.  Last  year, 
Taft  explained  the  reservations  of  the  League  of  Nations  to  us,  and 
Hugh  Walpole  told  us  about  the  spirit  of  New  Russia.  One  often 
gets  a  chance  to  meet  these  men  at  receptions,  held  after  the  lecture 
in  the  fraternity  houses. 

Then,  there  are  concerts,  plays  given  by  the  town  and  college 
dramatic  clubs,  and  rallies  in  Memorial  Hall  before  the  big  games 
and  track  meets.  After  your  first  year  you  will  be  able  to  amuse 
yourself  by  sending  the  freshmen  through  their  antics,  of  which  there 
is  an  ever-increasing  variety.  Some  of  the  more  common  stunts  are 
singing  and  reciting  pieces  at  meal  times,  would  be  gymnastic  feats, 
etc.,  ad  finitum  et  absurdum.  You'll  find  out  all  about  it  very  soon 
now. 

Well,  I  see  that  I  am  on  the  way  to  writing  a  book,  so  will 
stop.  It's  really  impossible  to  describe  the  things  which  go  to  make 
up  college   life.     Why   don't  you   come  down   this   spring   and   look 


22 


Life  at  Bowdoin 


around?  That  is  the  best  way  to  gain  an  appreciation  of  the  place 
where  you  are  going  to  work  and  play  for  four  years.  Just  drop 
me  a  line  and  I'll  meet  you  at  the  train. 

Sincerely  yours, 

E.  H.  E. 


1                               If 

ill                    -*&*            ^Bfc    a 
•       JHM                                           J 

1  • . 

.  iA.. 

Pyramid  of  Fraternity  Brothers 


Freshman  and  Goat 


Life  at  Bowdoin  23 

VI. 

12  Winthrop  Hall,  March  16,  1921. 
Dear  Jack, 

I'm  glad  you  asked  about  Bowdoin  traditions,  because  I  find 
the  traditions  of  an  old  college  like  this  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting and  amusing  parts  of  the  life.  There  are  so  many  of  them 
that  I  can't  possibly  tell  you  about  them  all,  but  I  can  pick  out 
a  few  so  that  you  can  tell  what  you  are  likely  to  run  into  at  the 
start  anyhow.  Of  course,  you  want  to  know  about  freshmen  tradi- 
tions first,  and  of  course  the  first  of  these  are  connected  with  fra- 
ternity rushing.  I  think  you'll  be  surprised  at  the  welcome  you'll  get 
when  you  strike  here.  Everyone  who  ever  heard  of  you  and  a  good 
many  more  will  be  coming  round  to  invite  you  to  their  houses,  and 
you'll  get  your  first  taste  of  what  fraternity  life  here  means,  the 
intimacy,  the  jokes,  the  songs,  the  blazing  log  fires,  and  the  form- 
ing of  friendships  that  will  last.  I  envy  the  freshman  who  is 
getting  his  first  taste.  Well,  some  night  you  will  find  the  crowd 
you  want  and  that  wants  you,  and  then  the  pre-initiation  stunts  will 
start.  They  aren't  so  bad.  We  don't  have  the  scaring  kind  here 
unless  it  would  scare  you  to  be  sent  downtown,  for  example,  with 
a  bootblack's  kit  and  made  to  ask  every  pretty  girl  you  meet  whether 
you  may  shine  her  shoes.  You  may  want  to  kick  a  little  at  the 
time  but  you'll  yarn  about  it  for  the  rest  of  your  life.  Then  soon 
will  come  initiation  night,  one  of  the  nights  you'll  like  to  remember 
best.  You'll  meet  the  alumni  of  your  fraternity,  some  of  them  young 
and  all  fired  up  with  all  the  things  they  are  going  to  do  in  the 
world,  some  grey  haired  and  quiet  and  successful,  but  all  back  for 
the  love  of  their  college  and  fraternity  and  all  interested  in  you. 
And  when  the  banquet  is  over,  you'll  go  marching  around  with  your 
new  brothers  through  the  campus  and  town,  singing  your  fraternity 
songs  and  cheering  the  other  crowds  to  show  that  fraternity  rivalries 
can't  hurt  the  spirit  that  binds  Bowdoin  man  to  Bowdoin  man. 
But  meanwhile  you'll  be  learning  that  you  are  a  freshman  and  at 
mortal  enmity  with  your  teachers  in  college  traditions,  the  sophs. 
You'll  buy  your  freshman  cap,  and  learn  what  Phi  Chi  stands  for, 
and  hear  all  sorts  of  tales  about  the  Gobblers  who  gobble  fresh  on 
sight,  if  they  don't  follow  to  the  letter  the  commands  of  the  Sopho- 
more proclamations.  You'll  help  to  make  plans  for  the  great  flag 
rush,  and  perhaps  you'll  be  able  to  make  the  freshman  baseball  or 
football  team  for  the  freshman-sophomore  series. 

But  even  if  you  are  a  freshman,  you  are  a  Bowdoin  man  and 
will  soon  learn  the  Bowdoin  hello.  It  is  important.  I  mean  of  course 
the  tradition  of  saying  hello  to  every  Bowdoin  man  you  meet,  because 
that  lasts  all  through  a  man's  college  course,  and  because  it  stands 
for  something  we're  very  proud  of  here,  the  democracy   that  is  so 


24  Life  at  Bowdoin 


big  a  part  of  life  at  Bowdoin.  Perhaps  you've  heard  this  called  a 
rich  man's  college  by  people  who  never  saw  it,  or  who  couldn't  get 
in,  or  who  don't  know  what  else  to  say  against  it.  That's  about  as 
true  as  calling  the  State  of  Maine  a  rich  man's  state.  We've  got 
fellows  here  who  have  been  to  expensive  schools  and  who  don't  have 
to  worry  as  much  as  most  of  us  about  making  their  living  when  they 
get  out,  but  it's  a  Bowdoin  tradition  that  it  will  take  you  some  time 
to  find  out  which  ones  they  are. 

But  here  I  am  far  on  in  my  letter  and  not  through  even  with 
freshman  traditions  yet.  I  haven't  told  you  of  the  water  fights  or 
furniture-stacking  in  the  dormitories.  I  haven't  even  said  anything 
about  Triangle,  the  math  professor's  great  trotter,  which  nearly 
always  comes  in  first  at  the  Topsham  fair,  and  is  supported  by  a 
crowd  of  freshmen  rooters  to  whom  Triangle's  owner  always  donates 
admission  tickets.  I  haven't  asked  you  to  prepare  to  shed  a  tear  on 
the  tombstone  of  Anna  where  freshmen  yearly  bury  their  analytical 
geometry  texts  (after  final  marks  are  out)  with  transports  of  grief. 
You'll  find  the  year  full  enough  of  traditions  up  to  the  night  when  you 
will  burn  your  freshman  cap  in  the  bonfire  outside  the  gym,  to  show 
the  Ivy  girls  who  come  out  to  watch  you  between  dances  that  no 
sophomore  can  ever  call  you  fresh  again. 

And  so  there  is  no  time  to  tell  of  the  tradition  of  the  later 
years,  of  the  clanging  of  the  chapel  bell  and  the  torchlight  pro- 
cessions four  abreast  after  athletic  victories,  with  speeches  by  Prexy 
and  the  coach  and  captain  if  it's  a  home  game;  of  college  sings 
in  spring  evenings  on  the  campus,  and  a  dozen  other  things  that 
are  going  to  make  me  miss  this  little  old  college  before  long.  The 
last  traditions  will  soon  be  over  for  me  now.  Soon  I'll  be  getting 
ready  my  rig-out  for  seniors'  last  gym,  when  we'll  celebrate  our 
last  gym  class  after  the  most  ancient  order;  which  includes  hanging 
the  effigies  of  a  gym  instructor  or  two  on  a  neighboring  tree.  Beyond 
that  is  seniors'  last  chapel  when  we'll  leave  the  old  chapel  for  the  last 
time,  marching  out  slowly,  locked  four  abreast  and  singing  Auld 
Lang  Syne.  Then  at  the  fraternity  houses  comes  seniors'  last  supper. 
We'll  sit  around  the  fire  and  each  of  us  tell  his  chapter  what  college 
and  fraternity  have  meant  to  him  and  how  sorry  he  is  to  leave  it  all. 
We  end  the  evening  by  the  round  of  song  and  cheer  the  same  as  on 
initiation  night.  But  it  always  ends  with  the  long  Bowdoin  yell  in 
front  of  the  Chapel,  for  it  is  the  College  that  holds  the  foremost 
place  in  our  affections. 

Yours  sincerely, 

H.  M.  L. 


RECORD    PRESS,     BRUNSWICK,    ME. 


3  0 


12  105581513 


